The Manual
by Madhatter1981
Summary: While exploring the Library, Clara comes across a book that might help her manage her way around the TARDIS, although the Doctor may not agree.


**The Manual**

Clara Oswald was in the library of the TARDIS, looking for something good to read; being a governess/school teacher she was always on the hunt for something to inspire her charges and get them to think about things in a new way, as well as something to read while they were whirling their way through the vortex of space and time. Now, admittedly, most of the time she find books that don't work for one reason or another (either they were written in earth's future or they were from an alien planet that has adopted a language that is close enough to earth to be read by humans) but Clara felt optimistic, even if nothing usable had presented itself. Just about planning to give up and go find the doctor and inform him it was tea time, Clara saw it.

It was a fairly small book, roughly the size of a car manual, rather logical Clara thought later. Bound in some sort of dyed blue skin that seem to resemble leather (think 11th/River's journal) with some sort of alien text on the spine that for some reason the TARDIS wasn't translating for her, the book sat in a section of what seemed to be engineering text.

Picking up the book and turning to her, Clara was surprised to see the text on the cover, which resembled the text on the spine translate into English. Upon the cover of the book Clara read; 'Operational Manual for TARDIS mk. 5'.

With wide eyes; Clara opened the book and began to flip through the pages, in it she discovered numerous things. Such as the fact that the console, that the Doctor ran around in a mad frenzy whenever they were trying to get anywhere with the TARDIS, was meant to be operated by six people.

A good deal of the manual seem to cover the semi-physic bond the TARDIS had with it's pilot/operator. As she read about how the TARDIS' bond would allow the pilot to be aware of what was going on with the ship; she understood why the Doctor spent so much time under the decking of the control room fiddling with the fiber-optic looking cables that snaked underneath.

As Clara sat down and read, she was surprised to learn that the TARDIS supposedly had something called a chameleon circuit that allowed it to blend into its surroundings when it land somewhere that a police call box looked out of place. This also explained why the TARDIS looked like something from earth to begin with. With her nose in the manual, Clara walked out of the library and went off to find the Doctor. The TARDIS hummed with pleasure, she understood why the doctor had kept her as she was but she was thinking that it was time for a change.

The Doctor was in the console room under the floor working on repairing the chameleon circuit now that the Prometheans had been taken care of. He wonder what the old girl would change into first, he suspected that she was looking forward to being able to stretch her wings, so to speak when he heard Clara walking towards where he was, calling out for him. Poking his head out of the floor panel he noticed Clara standing above him with a frown on her face, thinking that this might be important the Doctor leverage himself out up onto the deck of the Tardis and faced Clara. As he righted himself, Clara thrusted a book into his chest, looking down he noticed it was the manual to his Tardis and the Doctor started to scowl as he snatched it out of her hand.

"Where did you find this?! I thought I had thrown all of them away, well only one thing to be done." After saying this, the doctor walked over to the doors of the TARDIS and, upon them opening, threw the book out into the vortex.

With a satisfied nod of his head the Doctor turn around and started back towards the console, stopping after noticing the shocked and horrified look on Clara's face.

"Why did you do that?!" Clara asked in shock and the confusion; the TARDIS, she noticed when she thought about it later, seemed to thrum in agree with her question. The Doctor looked at her with a sympathetic, almost pitying look on his face.

"Clara with how many repairs I've done to the old girl, not to mention how many modifications I've have to make in order to fly this by myself and not with the other five crew members there are supposed to be to operate it, the manual is completely useless at this point." The doctor said slightly patronizing.

Clara, thinking about it, realize that The Doctor had a point, with having to change the operation of the TARDIS to work for one person instead of six, but it seem dangerous to completely disregard the operating manual for something as seemingly complex as the TARDIS. Feeling dissatisfied, Clara stormed off towards her room with a shake of her head.

Clara opened the door to her bedroom stormed in and fell down on the bed in frustration, she couldn't believe that man sometimes. As she started to become aware, she realized that she was lying on top of something that; while it wasn't large, was fairly uncomfortable. Rolling to her feet she look down at what she had been lying on and started to smile; there on bedspread was a book with the title 'Operational Manual for TARDIS mk. 5' on it.

Clara grabbed up the book and started to look around for a place to hide it and quickly, who knew how much time she had before the doctor was going to poke his head in. She really need to have another conversation with that man about personal space and boundaries. As she was looking around, Clara noticed something that looked like at safe materialize to the right of her in the corner of her room. Walking over there, Clara discover that it was a safe, with what looked like a white square on it similar to a palm scanner, instead of a combination dial lock. Quickly, Clara placed the book into the safe and closed the door. As she stared at the safe, trying to figure out how to lock it, the square lit up. Cautiously, Clara pressed her hand onto the square which glowed brighter for a minute, before there was a slight pinch that caused Clara to pull away slightly; grabbing her right hand with her left as she looked at the safe with suspicion. Edging close, Clara tentatively placed her hand on the white square, which lit up again, before she heard a click and the door open, looking inside Clara saw that the manual was still where she had placed it. Closing the door with satisfaction, Clara looked at her hand and noticed that she had what looked to be a pinprick cut on it. As she stared at her hand and wonder it she need to do anything about it, a small shelving unit, roughly the size and shape of a shoe box to the right of her that Clara had never noticed before lit up. Walking over to it, Clara stuck her hand in the light box and was pleasantly surprised to feel the wound on her hand close up and heal.

As she stood there staring at her hand in amazement, Clara heard the doctor calling for her. Quickly glancing around her room to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary, Clara nodded to herself and walked out of her room.

"Coming." Clara shouted in reply as she walked in the direction that the shout seemed to have come from, which was the direction of the console room. As she got further away from her room, Clara had to school her face into a bored somewhat disapproving face, as to not show her excitement for what she had planned when she retired for the night.

 **A/N** **:** Please read/review, especially if you plan to favorite this story. Thnx Mad.


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